The government should enforce stricter measures and punish breeders who chronically fatten “divine pigs” for weighing competitions held by some local temples, the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) said at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Playing a video of how divine pigs are abused by being force-fed and cruelly slaughtered, the EAST accused the government of turning a blind eye by failing to hold inhumane breeders accountable under the Animal Protection Act (動物保護法).
These breeders put the animals in custom-made metal cages to limit their movement and force-feed them, EAST researcher Tsun Fang-chu (寸舫筑) said.
Photo: Cheng Ming-hsiang, Taipei Times
After they have grown to a certain size, divine pigs cannot even walk, as their feet can no longer support their weight, Tsun added.
In Taiwan, some temples hold divine pig weighing competitions as part of their religious and cultural festivals. The heaviest pig is declared the winner and the owner receives a prize. All pigs are eventually killed and offered as sacrifices to a city god or a local deity.
Tsun said the group in August last year filed complaints with the Taoyuan City Government and the Council of Agriculture (COA) to protest the practice, and received the following replies: “The practice does not constitute animal abuse, as it does not create internal wounds in pigs,” “The pigs eat on their own initiative” and “Fattening divine pigs to a point where they can no longer walk is a way to maximize profits.”
Council data from last year showed that Taiwan had seven divine pig breeders at the time and 34 divine pigs nationwide, she said.
However, the Yimin Festival (義民祭) in Hsinchu County — a Hakka festival in which divine pigs are killed as offerings to gods and tributes to warriors who died fighting to protect their land — last year saw 31 divine pigs in the weighing competition, with 20 of them weighing more than 600kg, she said.
Thirty-five temples nationwide held similar contests in the same year, with the estimated number of divine pigs exceeding 270, she said, citing EAST surveys.
Although the council has for the past two decades said that it favors issuing verbal warnings instead of imposing punishments, its data on the numbers of divine pigs and breeders are not even right, she said.
“Who exactly has the COA given any verbal warning to?” she added.
The government should dole out immediate punishments and stop certain divine pig breeders from continuing the abuse, she said.
Religious dedication to deities and animal abuse do not have to go hand in hand, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said, adding that there must be a more humane way to raise divine pigs.
Folk traditions should be respected, but it is a completely different matter if a breeder raises divine pigs by abusing them to maximize economic gains, Wu said.
The tradition can be preserved without contravening the Animal Protection Act, she said, citing some temples, which hold divine pig painting contests using statues in lieu of fattened sacrificial pigs, in their effort to strike a balance between observing the tradition and animal care.
The government should encourage alternative practices and create incentives, such as economic ones, for temples to transform their way of following the tradition, she said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS